"Mom, can you take me to Robert's to buy spray paint and butcher paper?"

"What for?" Like I hadn't heard the Debate a thousand times.

"I need to practice my graffiti. Everyone at school asks me to write their names for them. I'm the best graffiti artist in middle school. There are even kids telling me they'll pay me to graffiti their names on their bedroom walls!"

"What else have you been interested in that you haven't tried yet? What about cake decorating? Ace of Cakes has some amazing ideas!"

It was Christmas break, she had time on her hands. This distraction technique had to work.

"I'll think about it."

Thus followed four solid hours on YouTube and Food Network, learning everything she could about fondant.

Who said anything about fondant? I was thinking more along the lines of butter cream frosting. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Ace of Cakes.

Kirsten wrote a list and came with me to the grocery store.

No more talk of spray paint. Fondant was beginning to have a nice ring to it.

Which didn't resonate for long.

"Five bags of powdered sugar, two large tubs of Crisco, four pounds of butter, butter flavoring, AND cake mixes?"

"Mom, I want to follow the instructions exactly so it'll turn out perfect. It has to be Wilton brand butter flavoring, by the way."

The cashier rung up all the lard, all the sugar, all the butter, and even the fake butter. A pre-baked, pre-decorated cake could easily have been purchased with that money.

But I bit my tongue, because that's what we moms do when we're encouraging the Development of Talents in our Children.

Far into the night and even further into the following day, Kirsten was in The Zone.

Baking the cakes. Making the frosting layer that must go under the fondant (that's where the butter cream frosting came into play). Mixing the fondant. Kneading the fondant. Coloring the fondant. Kneading the fondant. Kneading the fondant some more. And then more. Letting the fondant sit in the fridge overnight. Kneading the fondant even more than it had been kneaded previously. Rolling it out, over and over again. Trying again when it doesn't quite work. Shaping. Fixing cracks. Molding. Fixing more cracks. Cutting. Creating.

5 comments:

She is very artistic. What great talents she has. Isn't there some other way she can practice her "graffiti"? You would think that for starters it will be harder to do with spray paint and maybe if she could find another name, like name art... Can she use acrylic paint and practice on butcher paper so she can decorate her friends rooms? You have to admire the girls talents and persistence. The cake did turn out beautifully.

Susie- My cousin, Jason Helton, grew up in Detroit. He was, and still is, a great graffiti artist. I worried about him all the time when we were teenagers, thinking that one day he would stop just "grafitti-ing" names for his friends and start tagging buildings. He never did. He developed his talent and now owns an amazing company, Helton Brothers. (google them- their website is awesome!) They have done rooms for "Extreme Home Makeover" and stage sets for concert tours. Surely, Kirsten in more apt to follow that career path :) I'm beginning to wonder though how one girl can have so many talents!